{"id":4427,"date":"2010-06-21T06:39:13","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T13:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=4427"},"modified":"2010-06-21T06:39:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T13:39:13","slug":"7-steps-to-project-alignment-how-to-ensure-your-project-is-in-tune-with-your-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=4427","title":{"rendered":"7 Steps to Project Alignment – How to ensure your project is in tune with your company"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Rebeca Shen<\/p>\n

UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student<\/p>\n

There are many ways to skin a cat.\u00a0 \u00a0May be (haven\u2019t done any, personally, for the record).\u00a0 There are good ways and better ways to skin a cat.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 There are more than one ways to lead a project? Of course.\u00a0 There are good and better ways to lead a \u2018useful\u2019 (by that, we mean a project that is aligned with the goals of an organization)?\u00a0 For sure!<\/p>\n

So, what are they?\u00a0 What are the leadership and communication best practices to ensure that the project is aligned with the goals of an organization?\u00a0 Here are 7 ways to align your project with your organization.<\/p>\n

Know thy context and environment: <\/strong>No project exists in a vacuum nor is useful if it does not support the goal of the organization.\u00a0 Therefore, it behooves you to know the vision and the goal of an organization:\u00a0 No brainer.\u00a0 Gotta know what you are dealing with.\u00a0 What is your organization\u2019s goal?\u00a0 What is the vision statement?<\/p>\n

Know thyself: <\/strong>Next, what is your project\u2019s goal?\u00a0 What is your project vision statement?\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have one, you should.\u00a0 If you do have one, does it contradict or support the vision of your organization?\u00a0 If it supports the organizational goal, great.\u00a0\u00a0 If not, why?\u00a0 Is it a \u2018skunk project\u2019?\u00a0 Is it a corporate attempt at \u2018rebranding\u2019?\u00a0 Knowing the reasons helps you communicate and advocate for your project.<\/p>\n

Write it down: <\/strong> It is important to document the project vision.\u00a0 Write it down and write a description of how this vision supports your organization.\u00a0 It will help you when you need to advocate your project to your staff and your organization.<\/p>\n

Ask ask ask: <\/strong> Ask questions of your colleagues and your supervisors.\u00a0 Find out how they perceive your project and how it fits into the organization.\u00a0 You will then also find allies and help when you need them.<\/p>\n

Listen listen listen: <\/strong>Listen carefully for what is said, as well as what is NOT said.\u00a0 And no, you shouldn\u2019t be paranoid.\u00a0 No one is out to get you.\u00a0 But pay attention to the little clues that might help refining the project vision and execution.\u00a0 For example, if your user constantly refers to \u201chow we used to do \u2018this\u2019\u201d, may be you should ask:\u00a0 \u201cwould you prefer if we incorporate \u2018this\u2019 into the design?\u201d<\/p>\n

Speak speak speak: <\/strong> Make transparencies and openness your project culture.\u00a0 Invite people to your status meetings.\u00a0 Send them information (more than what they possibly would want to see), when requested (or even when NOT requested).\u00a0 Obviously, you wouldn\u2019t want to be a pest, or flooding everyone\u2019s inbox with junk mail.\u00a0 But you should advertise your project and convey the sense of transparency.<\/p>\n

Making the round trip: <\/strong> Don\u2019t be afraid to make changes to your project vision.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t fit into your organization, then you need to evaluate your project and see if it indeed needs to revise itself.\u00a0 You should not run a project that doesn\u2019t contribute to your organization\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n

In summary, A project manager\u2019s job is to make sure a project is run successfully:\u00a0 a project that is aligned with the organizational goal is a good project.\u00a0 And you will need to do a lot of talking and listening to make that happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rebeca Shen UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student There are many ways to skin a cat.\u00a0 \u00a0May be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-communications"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}